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Portland has a plethora of amazing local music these days and as we gear up for the music festival season, fresh on the heels of a glorious memorial weekend full of sunshine, barbeques, and tune-infused campfires, PDX Magazine received what can only be described as an omen. Well… actually it was an email request for an album review from none other than Cedar Teeth. For those of you in the know this has been a greatly anticipated second arrival from the Portland natives who have been gaining national attention as they continue to tour with the likes of The Fruitions and Hillstomp…among others. For those of you yet unaware of the hypnotically folk-infused bluegrass sound of Cedar Teeth, this is the EP you’re going to want to introduce yourself to. This five-person mega-ensemble of Hill-Billy-Beethovens take the stage and studio with a sound that can only be compared to the invigorating aroma of old growth ferns lying decadently near a crackling creek of crystal clear water that’s only found in the dense foothills of the Mt. Hood National forest, also known as Cedar Teeth’s backyard. “Farewell to Green Mountain” is an evolutionary journey of Cedar Teeth utilizing complex song structures…

By Ross Blanchard Photo by Reuben Broadfoot. Foreground: Corey O’Hara. Background: Evan Corcoran A few weeks ago at a Ford Gallery event in Southeast Portland, five actors slipped into the venue, seized the microphone from the event’s host during a presentation, and began to shout offenses at the startled and silented crowd. The art salon in PDX Magazine‘s Mechanical venuewas paying tribute to artist Olinka Broadfoot whose show had launched that evening in the Ford Gallery one floor above. Broadfoot had just delivered a talk about her exhibit and poet Dan Raphael had read, when a man in his early thirties, shaved head, and wearing a yellow nylon jacket burst onto the stage and wrested the microphone from the event’s host. “You are under review by us,” he shouted to the stunned crowd. Another man, dressed in a TSA-style uniform, walked through the audience and shone a flashlight in their faces as a third man pointed a video camera at them. “You don’t have to watch inactively any more,” the man on the stage continued. “You feel the discomfort of being watched and addressed, since you came prepared to watch and make yourselves comfortable in the shelter of the dark. Your presence…

From poet Leah Noble Davidson comes our first crossword puzzle. This very Portlandy crossword will test your knowledge of arts and literary happenings in Portland as well as other notable activities, places, and events. We’re not sophisticated enough to have one of those fancy, web-enabled puzzles, so you’ll have to tackle this one the old fashioned way: print out the PDF, get a pencil (or pen), and dig in. Cross Portland Crossword PDF Don’t be shy about researching these. I got maybe half of them at the most without researching the rest. We’ll post answers at some point in the future. And if you can solve all these without some help, I want to hear from you! Send an email to ross@pdxmag.com for some well-deserved congratulations. — Ross Blanchard, Editor-in-chief

Photo: Youtube screen capture I was a little surprised last Sunday to see Anheuser-Busch (A-B) launch a snarky and even pompous assault on microbreweries. It came in the form of a Budweiser commercial that sought to definitively set itself apart from its craft beer competition. And I was very surprised to see a response by a small, craft beer advocacy group less than 48 hours later that put Budweiser back in its place as a generic, mass-produced beer. The Budweiser ad titled “Brewed the Hard Way” aired during the Super Bowl and it mocks craft beer drinkers and the microbrews themselves with text such as “Proudly a macro-beer. It’s not brewed to be fussed over,” and “It’s brewed for drinking. Not dissecting.” Within 48 hours, Hopstories.com out of Corvallis released a response, a video shot in the same style as the Budweiser ad, with text proclaiming, “Craft Beer. Proudly brewed by people. It’s not brewed to be slammed. It’s brewed to taste good,” and “Only craft beer is brewed by hand, the actual hard way. We will savor our hundreds of styles, you keep pushing your one.” The Hopstories video made quite an impact with 200,000 views so far this…

This evening, beginning at 7, a mass of literary talent descends upon NE Alberta Street like a swam of fully mature locusts. Authors, poets, and spoken word artists will read their work simultaneously, creating a buzz at six different locations up and down the street. Portland’s second annual LitHop will see Hawthorne Books, the IPRC, alice blue, Eraserhead Press, Unchaste Readers, and Publication Studio each host a series in which readers will perform for 15 minutes, in quick succession. The idea is to create something of a literary pub crawl. During the event, listeners can pop up and down the street to hear several, very different performances. Three readers will perform for 15 minutes each at the top of the hour, leaving the remaining quarter-hour to talk, drink, or move on to the next place. “The 15-minute time slot gives readers more of a spotlight,” says Kevin Sampsell, who produces the event with Jeff Alessandrelli and Bryan Coffelt. “And they’re great writers so they deserve that time,” adds Sampsell. And he notes that the 15 minutes gives listeners “quality time to get into the voice and style of each writer.” One of those writers is Mykle Hansen. “Whenever we bring…

Photos by Miri Stebivka from the PDX Magazine Issue No. 7 release party at Star Theater, part of the 2014 Soul’d Out Music Festival. Performers included Three For Silver, Rick Bain and the Genius Position, and Sallie Ford. Leo Daedalus hosted the event.

By Darka Dusty Painting by Halyna Cisaruk If you’re an artist, writer or musician (and if you’re in Portland, Oregon, chances are excellent that you ARE an artist, writer or musician), you have things you believe you do well, and things you believe you do really well, and things you know you could improve, and things that make you think you should hang it up and get a real estate license. And things you think you suck at. You’re probably much harder on yourself than you should be, especially if you try to live a creative life. As an artist, a writer, musician or anyone who regularly summons your muse or faces your creative demons, you are part of a very special, sensitive club. We creative types feel things deeply. We cry easier than most, and maybe this causes us to drink or smoke more than most, or find other ways to alter our perceptions. Sometimes we just need to momentarily numb ourselves from the intense majesty of life. The beauty we perceive around us can just be too goddamn much to take, making our emotional pain and passion excruciatingly unbearable. It’s also what causes us to see things in…

Our cover story for Issue #6. Seth Aaron, Two-time winner of Project Runway interviewed by Darka Dusty. On his career in fashion he says, “I wasn’t satisfied where I was. I always wanted more. Even today, with everything I’ve accomplished, I want more. I’m not ever satisfied… It’s not a matter of money or greed. That’s not what I mean by more. It’s that I want more creatively. I want more challenges. It’s about pushing myself.” Video by Eric Naslund.

Way Back in Issue #4 we asked our readers to have fun with a Fun Page. It was just a simple, black page with white, dotted lines and few instructions. Here, finally, are some results: 1. Fish Friend by The Indestructible Bubble “Hello! Im The Indestructible Bubble! Im a superhero and I live at the top of a cliff over looking the Williamette River 🙂 I send you a creation of my fish friend about to enjoy a snack! Cheers! IB” 2. P1010010 by Anna Gorman “Hello Editor: I made this pillow in response to yourFun Page in Issue #4 (January 2014). I am an artist who works in various media. I like to sew to relax and break free of all the usual strictures of my other mediums. Thank you for even looking at this! Sincerely, Anna Gorman.” 3. Two-Way Make-Shift Fancy-Mask! and The Sturgeon by Zack and Emily Kosta

Be part of the conversation. PDX Magazine is a new, local-focused avant-garde magazine, in print and online, examining all lovely facets of the creative life in Portland. We consider aspects of our city that make it a wonderful and unique place to live. Topics we explore include visual arts, literature, music, performance, and other events or activities focused on entertainment and the creative lifestyle in the Northwest’s Belle Epoque. We’re looking for 500- to 2000-word submissions of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or coverage of creative local people or goings-on; especially submissions that are as original in approach as in subject matter. No reviews, please. Our magazine is monthly, publishing around the middle of each month. Please read our past issues before submitting. Email submissions to Managing Editor Charity Heller at editor@pdxmag.com.